[Anime] Aldnoah.Zero

Boy I can't imagine the things that would happen if they had aired it on the 4th of July. A little late to say this but Happy Independence Day USA.

EDIT: I would also like to add special mentions to Sawano Hiroyuki for the soundtrack, Kalafina for the ending theme of this episode, and last but not the least of course, Urobuchi for never failing to amaze me with his brutal ways of killing people.

There MUST be a reason why the protag is stone-cold like that. Next to no reaction from seeing his friend die before his eyes.

In all likelihood the Martians aren't even treating this like a war, by cutting off the communications (when targeting the FOV would've been better) and only sending forward their knights they've effectively created an arena where their nobles can make a show of exterminating mankind's forces. Though cutting off communications first was wise, since the unknown nature of the Martian's arsenal is a huge advantage in this war.

Characters are kinda meh thus far, they haven't really done anything striking yet. Ofc the princess is alive that death reeked of bait but the question is what happened to the princess's escort and why did she leave their safety? Obviously she was a sacrificial lamb to kickstart the war but some pro-war advocates would've known that she had a double in place. Were they killed in a cleanup and she was forced to make a hasty retreat? Quite likely that's why she didn't jump out of the truck and wave her hands at the Cataphracts out of fear of being slain by her comrades.

Koichirō Marito is Hans.

My best guess as to what the purple Cataphract uses in his "annihilation field" would be a super-dense cloak composed of some form of light. Another theory would involve a magnetic layering of sorts since the sound and appearance is familiar to super-magnetic reactions...but magnets are used all the time in anime so I'm hoping not. It probably has limitations to either how much it can compress in one combat session or continuously which is why he didn't follow them down the tunnel. However one of it's weaknesses it's obvious-it's feet, otherwise the annihilation field would've sunk him through the floor.

I was incredibly disheartened when they killed the princess in the first episode, I thought this series wasn't going to put much care into their characters and the relationships. Glad to see I was wrong, or at least too quick, in jumping to that conclusion. Opening kinda spoiled that though.... (I hate when openings spoil story... this is why I prefer manga over anime most of the time...)

...he could be a number of things such as Alexithymia, Schizophrenic, or even Sociopathic. (and not the "Joker" interesting kind but just plain "emotionless"....) I really can't find him, as he is, interesting.

I just facepalmed, when the humans, where surprised that there satellites where destroyed.

Like really? I can understand no expecting the destruction of the sea cables, but not expecting and preparing a back-up to your satellites is just bad.

Overall good ep though.

Well, until the Terrans make the Martian Empire aware that the princess is still alive, they're in deep shit. Though Apathetic-kun seems to figure out the limitation of the Martian mecha.

They'd have to go passed the knights directly too the empire, seeing as the knights are filled with conspirators.

And even then, there's no way to prove her existence as the legitimate heir, especially against the word of the knights.

And even after that, it still appears as though humans attacked her.

There's the possibility that they can assume the princess has been brain washed.

And then there are the amount of lives the aliens have taken already, they can't just stop and say, "sorry for the insubordination on our side that lead to the mass genocide of your race... so about that peace treaty?". They're going to have to see it through to the end or else reveal how little control they have of in their own power structure.

Point being... with the chips where they are, so far, humans are dead, the princess existence doesn't matter at all anymore. And even if the conspiracy was revealed, from the mouth of 1 little girl, too many lives have been taken for a peaceful resolution to ever be attainable.

Don't you just love it?! I know they're going to roll out some secrete weapons for human side protag to drive around in (evening the playing field), but I love the scenario, as is.

Likely, the war will continue regardless of the state of the princess.

The following theory operates on several notions.
1. Asseylum(the princess) is very unpopular among the Martians(higher and lower caste). Her current position of power is maintained either through a combination or use of bloodline, brute force or clever campaigning.
2. Martian civil wars/infighting following the destruction of the Moon were devastating, causing severe rationing among the lower caste and enough desperation to wage war on Earth again and risk immediate extinction. Marito stated that the Martians were fighting for a chance to fight in space, the only thing for the Martians to fight in space are other Martians. If the Gods fight each other the heavens tear asunder is what historians always say.
3. Asseylum did not plan on instigating the war in the first place and was not double-crossed by her pro-war comrades(she would have to be a crazy bitch to order all of this shit to go down so I find this unlikely). But keep in mind that bending over backwards to gain public support for a war is half of the war.
4. Asseylum does not rely on proxies to deal with public affairs all the time.

Reasons her survival would not matter.

One of the (many I imagine) pro-war Cataphract nobles currently on the field can kill her(perhaps taking the fall) and claim it a tragedy on their noble crusade to reclaim Earth. They could go as far as to claim that the current Princess is a fake or traitor and kill her outright(of course she probably has some sort of identification on her person, but that's if she gets the chance to show it). Shots have been fired and Martians are more or less "pillaging the golden streets of Rome", if the Princess is as unpopular as I think she is it's more than likely that her declaration for a cease-fire will be overridden by the desperation of the Martian Empire for resources. As Bakapink said the humans still fired on Asseylum and that's grounds enough for war. Fact is that this war has been in the works for years and those years were full of fighting where their people suffered so they're pretty much ready to torch humanity to save their own skin.

Solution.

Quite likely this isn't a war humanity can win by fighting, they're hopelessly outgunned and potentially out manned(they're being eradicated by the nobles, the regulars haven't even shown their face yet and there are still 18 landing ships in orbit). Their(Inaho's party) possible plan of action right now would be ensuring Rayet(Martian? red-headed girl) survives and has the information necessary to prove the Martians involvement in the conspiracy and with Asseylum to vouch for it they could cause a civil war/unrest among the Martians. If the caste of the Martian Empire is a classical monarchy(doesn't give a shit about the commoners), then the nobles won't care and proceed to subjugate/cleanse Earth regardless.

TL;DR There's about a 50-50 chance of Humanity being royally screwed even if they manage to get everything done right, this isn't factoring in Urobachi.

There's a chance of that but I like the theme of humanity being hopelessly outgunned at every turn so I hope not. If Inaho does get a reasonable mech he'll be smart and won't go around picking fights with the nobles unless it's necessary especially since this could cause the Martians to fight seriously on grounds of a "serious threat" and that's a DEAD END Flag because I don't even want to consider what a united Martian force could accomplish(Heaven's Fall?). Or they could go the honor route and say there's great glory to be had in killing this rival to Aldnoah's supremacy over technology and hunt him for sport, which would be stupid on their part and I find it unlikely that Inaho will fight all the nobles considering there's 37 of them and only 12 episodes.

That's what I meant when I said "I love the scenario, as is", that I like the concept of humanity being on the edge of complete genocide by a superior race that only views them as insects and a story told from that perspective of the down trodden survivors.

I'd assume the knights are simply acting as the advance party, for glory/honor as they've stated, but that after the initial attack, regular soldiers will be used to subjugate the survivors. Seeing as the show of strength would no longer be necessary after the initial attack.

I doubt the aliens would take humans seriously, even if they managed to kill a knight, for the knights, killing is a game in which you try to one up your rivals. Or at least for the knights shown. An adversary that poses a threat becomes good sport. They seem to believe that they themselves are infallible and would most likely assume the death of another knight was due to their own weakness and proof of them being undeserving for the role of "knight". Bringing about an opportunity to earn more honor by cleaning up their mess. I'd say if multiple knights were getting knocked off, then they would become concern.

The knights have the right to self govern themselves, I assume the false-flag was instigated by a small number of knights for the purpose of solving their discontent with their 15 years of guard duty. They look down on humans, and I would easily assume they'd rather kill them than wait for a possibility of them becoming a treat. That with the "18 knights" that have yet to make a move, I can assume their is civil discourse/discontent among the knights. Less war craving knights. And That this gives rise to the possibility of a division between the knights that make work in humanities favor.

For humanity to survive, they'll need the alien technology either way. And considering humans butted heads with them already, I have to assume that they must have been making something for the last 15 years to combat the superior technology the aliens possess. And I'd also have to assume that they must possess some of the tech the aliens possess from that previous war. In the first episode they talk about space trade routes, so humanity was getting something from them. And seeing as this is an anime, I'd be surprised if the (human) protag didn't get all the shiny new and powerful toys at his disposal. But it would make it more interesting if that wasn't the case, if the human protag had to fight with multiple handicaps. Still... his personality is so... underwhelming, to put it kindly.